


Like Father, Like Son

by SeaSpectre160



Series: Whumptober 2019 [18]
Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Anxiety Attacks, Broadway References, Gen, Humiliation, Whumptober 2019, Winn Schott Jr. Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-20
Updated: 2020-07-20
Packaged: 2021-03-04 19:34:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,496
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25411705
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeaSpectre160/pseuds/SeaSpectre160
Summary: WHUMPTOBER 2019 PROMPT #25: HUMILIATIONHe was only vaguely aware of everyone else staring at him as the words echoed over and over in his head:‘You can’t escape your genes… You’ll always be your father’s child… You’ll wind up doing just as I’d have done… Like father, like son.’
Relationships: Winn Schott Jr. & Winslow Schott Sr.
Series: Whumptober 2019 [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1502108
Comments: 1
Kudos: 6





	Like Father, Like Son

**Author's Note:**

> Yes, I know that, for the most part, the ‘Long Way Home’ series has focused on ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, but I _have_ been making plans for some ‘Supergirl’ fics in the AU. All of them so far are focused on Winn, including this one. Working titles for the other two are ‘Parting Gift’ and ‘Soft Target’. There’s also another Winn fic, not part of ‘Long Way Home’, called ‘Happenstance’, which takes an idea from another fic I’ve read that had a good premise but wasn’t executed well enough to my liking. Also, like other authors before me, I’m somewhat incorporating Jeremy Jordan’s musical background into Winn’s character.
> 
> All the musicals mentioned in this fic are musicals that my own high school has actually done. ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ was the only one I wasn’t actually in, as I wasn’t attending that school at the time, but I did go see it and knew at least one member of the cast. We did ‘Hair’ when I was in Grade 12, and ‘Aida’ in Grade 11. ‘Urinetown’ (which we did in Grade 10) was also going to be mentioned, but as it first premiered in 2001, I felt that 2003 was a little too soon for a high school to get the rights to put on their own production. I’m not sure of the full details, but I know that there was a bit of paperwork that had to be done when we did ‘Hair’, especially to get it past the school board (although this had to be in part due to the fact that it has a lot of sex and drug references, as well as quite a few racial slurs that we were more than happy to be rid of even in a crappy alternate universe where the board was actually okay with them).
> 
> DISCLAIMER: I don’t own ‘Supergirl’ or any of its characters. I also don’t own ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’, ‘Hair’, ‘Aida’, any of _their_ characters, or the songs or lyrics.

In the last few months of fifth grade and throughout middle school, Winslow Schott Jr. was treated like a pariah amongst the students, through no fault of his own. At that age, children only paid so much attention to the news, but they had all heard from their parents about the fact that a local man had been arrested for blowing up six people, and it didn’t take long for them to notice that the man had the same name as one of their classmates.

Winn spent the first month or so after his father’s arrest fending off taunts and accusations about being the son of a murderer. The kids who were more inclined to make a joke of the matter would dive under the nearest table when he opened up his lunchbox, while others outright got up and moved to a different table when he sat down. Even his teachers eyed him warily, most hurtfully his science teacher, who looked apprehensive every time she handed back a test or assignment that he’d done particularly well on. It was as if she was taking his blooming skills in the subject as a sign that he was heading down the same path as his father.

Most of his friends tried to stand by him at first, but one by one, they eventually bowed to peer pressure and drifted away from him. Two didn’t even bother with that, and simply cut him out of their life entirely, right from the beginning.

The fuss slowly died down over time. Winn didn’t exactly have many close friends, and new kids were often warned away from him, but the blatant taunts and accusations had slowly shifted to occasional whispers and distrustful looks in his direction whenever something went wrong.

Occasionally, it would flare up again. One time, there’d been an accident in science class – they’d been learning the basics of electrolysis, and were copper plating coins in pairs. Winn and his partner performed their experiment flawlessly, but the pair next to them had been careless with the wiring, and the one nearest to him had ended up on the receiving end of a mild electrical shock. By lunch, there was a rumour going around the school that he had deliberately sabotaged his classmates’ experiment to hurt them. On his way home from school that day, a group of kids, including the one who’d been electrocuted, had ambushed him, dragged him into an out-of-the-way alley, and beat him up, only stopping when a random man walking by had chased them away.

Home wasn’t much of an escape, either – for the given value of the word ‘home’. He’d been shunted around a few different foster homes for the first couple of months before finally being place with Mrs. Norris. The woman wasn’t shy about her distrust towards him – or to any other kids with felonious relatives. Nor was she shy about reminding them about how _lucky_ they were to have someone who was willing to allow them food and clothes and a place under their roof. If anyone complained about her strict curfew or asked for a snack outside of mealtimes, she was more than ready with a horror story about a child who was horribly abused and/or killed in a foster home, and they should be _grateful_ to have wound up with her instead of there.

The implication that they didn’t deserve it went unsaid, but was nonetheless heard loud and clear.

But once he got into high school, he was dealing with many new classmates, as the high school was fed by three different middle schools, so now he had a ton of new schoolmates who’d never even heard of him. And with that anonymity came the chance to finally make some new friends. He quickly bonded with his fellow science nerds, but – on the advice of one of his foster brothers – he also decided to expand his interests and joined the drama club. He only made it into the chorus for ‘Jesus Christ Superstar’ his freshman year, but got the role of Woof in ‘Hair’ the next year. He found himself enjoying it more than he expected, so he was ecstatic to get cast as Radames in ‘Aida’ in his junior year.

Unfortunately, that joy didn’t last forever.

* * *

_Saturday, October 25 th, 2003_

Rather predictably, they worked on the songs from the first act before moving on to the second. Winn only had three songs in the first act: ‘Fortune Favors the Brave’, ‘Enchantment Passing Through’, and ‘Elaborate Lives’, and he had no problem with those. But once they got to the second act, Winn had _six_ songs to sing, and it was the second one that he had trouble with. Not because the song itself was particularly different to sing, but because the overall content of the song pushed a few buttons for him.

He got through the first rehearsal alright, even if his hands were shaking for an hour afterwards, but the during second one… he wasn’t so lucky.

The school’s music teacher Ms. Proulx, who was also the director of all the school plays, had them going over the song multiple times, since both Winn and Matty (the actor playing Zoser) hadn’t quite memorised all the lyrics yet. That meant multiple runs of having one of his classmates sing-slash-yell at him about how he was going to grow up to be just like his father.

Intellectually, Winn knew that Matty wasn’t _actually_ saying that _he_ would turn out like the Toyman; he was just repeating the words of a song written by someone who’d possibly never even heard of Winslow Schott Sr. But there was a part of him that was growing increasingly panicked at the idea, because what if it was _true_? After all, Dad was perfectly fine one day and a murderer the next. What if it _did_ happen to Winn someday?

The thought kept running through his head, distracting him to the point that he was doing _worse_ at remembering the lyrics instead of better with every new attempt. He could tell that Ms. Proulx and the other students were getting irritated with him, which did _not_ help to ease the stress whatsoever. Their stares made it feel like there were steel bands wrapped around his chest, getting tighter and tighter with every passing minute.

It was during the seventh try – or was it the eighth? – that the tightness in his chest got so bad that he could no longer breathe. No matter how hard he tried to suck air in, it didn’t stop the burning in his lungs.

His head spinning, he staggered off toward the door, ignoring the questions Ms. Proulx and students were asking him. He needed space, he needed to get away, he needed _space_ to _breathe_. Winn almost made it to the door, but his knees gave out a few steps away from it, and he dropped to the floor.

He was only vaguely aware of everyone else staring at him as the words echoed over and over in his head: _‘You can’t escape your genes… You’ll always be your father’s child… You’ll wind up doing just as I’d have done… Like father, like son.’_

Something touched his shoulder, and he flinched. Twisting around, he saw the worried face of Ms. Proulx looking down at him. “Winn? Is everything alright?”

Did he _look_ alright?! He would have dearly loved to snap that, but at this point, he’d be grateful to be able to say even _one_ word. He still couldn’t breathe, and black spots were starting to pop up on the edge of his vision.

“Okay, what the hell’s going on with him?” Doreen, the girl playing Aida, whispered loudly to her friend.

Ms. Proulx twisted around and looked at the horde of students staring at Winn and watching him lose it. “Everyone out,” she ordered, “Rehearsal’s over for today!”

Since there’d been only ten minutes left, anyway, the students gathered their things and filed out, every single one of them glancing his way and whispering amongst themselves as they passed him.

“What the hell is up with him?”

“Looks like he’s finally starting to lose it.”

“Don’t be so mean!”

“What? His dad was a maniac; we’ve all been waiting for this to happen!”

Mrs. Proulx shut the door with a disapproving look as soon as the last student left before rushing back to try and help him, but Winn could just imagine the other comments that they must be making. He’d had anxiety attacks like this before, but never in front of so many people. He squeezed his eyes shut, but the looks on their faces continue to parade through his mind’s eye.

Even if he could get over his issues with that particular song, Winn didn’t think he could handle any extra time with them beyond what class time required. He would never be able to show his face in the drama club ever again.

**Author's Note:**

> Some people may wonder how this counts as humiliation, but I can tell you from personal experience that the worst part about being bullied as a kid was when it happened in front of the other kids. Regardless of what they were actually thinking, having so many eyes on me when undergoing something stressful left me feeling like I was being harshly judged by everyone around me. One time, another girl accused me – in front of the entire class – of faking my distress for attention, and of course that set off the waterworks in front of everyone, and I knew that it was only adding evidence to her argument (even though she was absolutely wrong – I f***ing _hated_ it), and that knowledge only made me cry harder. I still consider it my worst experience of being bullied – and that’s counting the time two years later that my main bully did something so bad, the _police_ got involved.
> 
> I strongly recommend checking out the ‘Aida’ soundtrack; it was my favourite of the plays that I was actually in, and the soundtrack has a lot of variety in terms of musical styles, from African music to Motown, to gospel music (‘The Gods Love Nubia’ is just _beautiful_ ). My original plan for this was to have the other kids play a cruel joke on Winn, but then I was listening to this soundtrack one day, and inspiration struck. Radames and Zoser’s relationship, especially their [confrontation in Act Two](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r5e_R5DMB_c), would _definitely_ push trauma buttons for Winn.
> 
> The names of Winn’s classmates are inspired by (but _NOT_ the same as) the names of the teacher and students involved in my own school’s production of ‘Aida’. I am also dedicating this to the memory of our own Radames, who sadly left this world in March of 2019. He was a dedicated actor, a terrific singer, and one of the kindest souls I have ever met.
> 
> The next Whumptober story will focus on Desmond from ‘Legends of Tomorrow’, and should be out on Thursday.


End file.
